Amazon Traps

I’ve mentioned plenty of times how Amazon seems to eat up a substantial amount of my paycheck. I love that store a little too much. I mean let’s not talk about how I stayed up WAY too late on Tuesday night playing Tomb Raider that Amazon shipped to me for game day release. *awkward eye shifting* Don’t ever make me hate you Amazon. Promise? Please!

Anyways, I don’t know if I mentioned, but recently I picked up a Kindle. A friend of mine had just picked up a Kindle Fire not so long ago and was looking to dump her older one, a 2nd gen (of the original series). She hooked me up with a sweet deal and here I am Kindle, here I am!

And speaking of Amazon, that brings me to…

AMAZON TRAP #1

But first let me explain Amazon traps. Amazon offers you something you want at a price you can’t refuse. Feels eerily like the Godfather, although I guess Amazon doesn’t send anyone to break your thumbs. At least…I hope not… *glances over shoulder* Ha! Who am I kidding? I haven’t refused any deals! So back to the deal.

The Emotion Thesaurus. Something wise I think every person who ever puts an e-book on Amazon should do is offer samples. It’s potentially an Amazon trap because just as you’re getting into the book, “Oh, that’s the end of your sample. But all you have to do is click this button and for $CHEAP$ you can have the rest.” What? Sign me up!

That’s what happened with the Emotion Thesaurus. It’s a writer’s resource. Not sure whose blog I read it on first (I follow over 200 of you, you know). But I’m sure glad I did. The book lists basic emotions, then has a list of suggestions for the body language of that emotion, other related emotions, and different ways of looking at expressing the emotion so you have something better than: Johnny was angry. You don’t copy one of the suggestions, the idea is that it will help inspire you for your own. You think about your character and decide what they would do, or dig deep into yourself and think about what you would do.

I’ve already found it to be a helpful resource. And guess what folks? It’s available as a sample! (And available for $5 on the Kindle if you get trapped. You can also buy a physical book if that’s how you roll).

AMAZON TRAP #2

$2.99 MP3 Albums. I’ve mentioned cheap music before, but this time Amazon sweetened the pot. First up is Best of Van Halen. Now not all of the songs on the album are some I 100% love, but you’ve got to approach this realizing it’s usually $1/song. If you can get 17, most you like, that’s a smokin’ deal. Among my favs: Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, Runnin’ With The Devil, Jump, Panama, Why Can’t This Be Love, Dreams, When It’s Love, Right Now, and Can’t Stop Lovin’ You. Woot!

Next they got me with Complete Greatest Hits by The Cars. 20 songs for $3. Among my favs included: Just What I Needed, Good Times Roll, You’re All I’ve Got Tonight, It’s All I Can Do, Shake It Up, You Might Think, Drive, Magic, and Hello Again. Score!

Did I mention I also picked up Footloose? Oh yes, Footloose, Let’s Hear it For the Boy, Almost Paradise, Holding Out For A Hero, I’m Free, Hurts So Good, Waiting For A Girl Like You. Ahem. Amazon, I need a commission for all this recommending I’m doing. Or at least some Amazon credit. 😉 (Unfortunately Footloose is back up to $7. Still a decent deal. That’s why you watch the $2.99 bin and grab them when you see them.)

Oooh! Just found a Barenaked Ladies Hits album in the bin as I was typing this. Cha-ching!

I also picked up two Mat Kearney albums (also back up to $8 now). Yep, my taste in music is super eclectic. It goes all over the board on rock and pop. Old and recent, foreign and American.

Postscript, there are also $5 albums and $7 albums. Go have fun!

WHAT CAN BE AN AMAZON TRAP

Occasionally Amazon offers movies for $7.99 or so. These I can access via my Roku and I love that Amazon keeps it on their server for me. But these are so few and far between. The threshold on digital movies for me is exactly $10. $9 is pushing it, but I might be persuaded, if it’s really, really good, but $10!?! Ludicrous!

I’m serious. We don’t get bonus features, or behind the scenes, or any of that DVD stuff, so why would I pay $10 for just the movie? I’m hoping this will change in the near future. I hate how they charge you extra for HD too. Cuz it’s so different to render it as HD vs. SD? (I render stuff almost every day. It’s not.)

Either way, Amazon will still be claiming a large part of my income. *sigh* It’s a love/hate relationship.

I know some of you are addicted to Amazon? Anything that’s been trapping you lately? Or are you one of those rare creatures that never buys anything from Amazon? How do you resist the temptation? Let us know on all this below!

Heidi is addicted to Amazon, I never really got into ordering stuff from them, but my boyfriend is trying to be a bad influence on me and my wallet and trying to get me tp start ordering from them. But I know what you mean about the sample pages, I have the same issue witg my nook. I think I bought around 10 books just last week from it. 🙂

I’m addicted to Amazon, and I fall prey to low prices and samples all the time. I’m an impulse purchaser when it comes to books. I end up with loads of books on my Kindle that I’ll probably never read.

The power of Amazon lies in the “you bought that, we think you’ll like this too” data mining they do on all of us. If you just look it stuff, it will send you an email about other things like it. I had to buy new headphones, so I searched around for a while. I only need one pair, but Amazon keeps trying to sell them to me.

When a friend got her Kindle, she aquired a $200 per month book habit. I told her a recreational drug habit might be cheaper.

Lol. Maybe recommend she try borrowing e-books for awhile and cut back. Yep, Amazon sends me emails sometimes too, although less these days. I believe you can turn off or at least lessen the amount of emails they send. But no doubt, Amazon knows how to sell their wares well. Thanks for commenting!